Friday 9pm, Sky Atlantic Colin Farrell reprises his role as Gotham City villain the Penguin in a series spin-off from the 2022 superhero movie The Batman (the one with Robert Pattinson as the Caped Crusader, Batman himself not figuring in this series). Set one week after the events in that movie, the series explores the ascent to power of the disfigured former chief lieutenant of deceased crime boss Carmine Falcone, Oswald “Oz” Cobb (aka the Penguin). In his attempts to fill Carmine’s shoes in the Gotham criminal underworld, he comes up against the dead mobster’s serial killer daughter, Sofia (Cristin Milioti), who threatens to thwart his attempts to establish himself.
7.30pm, BBC One One of England’s grandest stately homes, Wentworth Woodhouse in South Yorkshire, was going to rack and ruin before it was saved by a dedicated team of workers and volunteers. This really quite inspiring documentary follows the battle to restore this majestic country house to its former glory for the local people living in a once-thriving mining community.
9pm, BBC One Twenty famous (and some not-so-famous) faces started the battle to become Celebrity MasterChef Champion 2024 and now only three remain. The finalists are now asked to cook and present two courses, a main and dessert, for judges John Torode and Gregg Wallace to taste before declaring the winner. 9pm, BBC Two Monty Don offers tips on how to keep lawns looking their best throughout autumn, tidies up the pond and plans ahead for a colourful spring display by potting up hyacinth bulbs.
Rachel de Thame, meanwhile, visits a colourful collection of asters in Worcester, and Adam Frost discovers how the derelict garden of Peckover House in Cambridgeshire was restored to its former Georgian beauty. 9pm, ITV1 In the final visit of the week to the single parents looking for love in that Sussex country house, the parents channel the Wild West for a hoedown party with some intimate conversations leading to a first kiss. One of the mums has an emotional breakthrough during a game, and another plucks up the courage to ask a dad out, with a surprising outcome.
9pm, More4 A sequel to that snowbound French- Canadian crime thriller The Wall , which was shown last on More4 last year. Isabel Richer reprises her role as maverick Quebec City detective Céline Trudeau, investigating when a disgraced engineer is found dead in a bath of cement while attending a conference. Big corporations may be involved, while Trudeau is hampered by an unwanted new partner.
10pm, Channel 4 Hoping to meet someone “feral, but not too feral”, divorcee Jo is introduced to pub landlord Sam. They bond over Tank Girl and Jo soon feels comfortable enough to speak about her alopecia. Fiftysomething voiceover artist Ingrid is paired with 57-year-old cinema operator Simon and they quickly connect over a shared passion for film, while Marina is a 28-year-old jewellery designer searching for a partner with faith.
Saturday 7pm, BBC One Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman present the first live edition of the series as the ballroom dance show returns for its 20th anniversary year. The nervous celebrities and their cool-headed partners must perform their opening routines, safe in the knowledge that no one is being voted off this week. 5.
10pm, BBC One Viewers still hanging in there with this ( wildly contrived ) reality show aiming to turn a British boy band into the next K-pop sensation might like to know that this is the end of the “experiment”. Anyway, in their final week in South Korea, Blaise, Dexter, James, Olly and Reese have to perform for two very different audiences: a crowd of 700 dignitaries at the British Embassy as part of King Charles’s birthday celebrations and a group of eager K-pop fans ready to pass apparently expert judgement on whether or not they have “made it”. 8.
25pm, Channel 4 A new series providing a bird’s-eye view of lost railway lines, revealing the vibrant industries that once dotted their routes and exploring how they transformed the lives of people who lived along them. This opening episode takes a look at one of Britain’s most beloved lost lines, through Somerset and Dorset’s countryside. The route starts in Bath, plunging through tunnels and crossing vast viaducts as it approaches Midsomer Norton.
8.30pm, ITV1 Newbie judge LeAnn Rimes announces that she’s looking for “a bit of fun on my team”, and, sure enough, a naturally funny (and gifted) singer takes to the stage. Kailun is a sunbed shop manager from Eastbourne with a lively sense of humour who hopes to deliver a chair-swivelling rendition of Billy Joel’s “She’s Always a Woman”.
And then we have the competition’s first potential heartthrob, a guitar-wielding pizza chef hailing from Nottingham who rocks out to Olivia Rodrigo’s “Vampire”. 9.25pm, BBC One This six-part adaptation of a novel by Big Little Lies ’ Liane Moriarty is set in a similar upscale coastal community, this time in Florida instead of California.
It is a well-acted, flashback-heavy whodunnit centred on the Delaney family, whose retired tennis coach matriarch Joy (Annette Bening) has gone missing. Familial secrets and lies promptly come tumbling out, with Sam Neill (as Joy’s husband, Stan), Jake Lacy and Alison Brie also featuring in an above-par cast that makes it worth your while. 9.
25pm, BBC Two The shocking story of how some of music’s best-loved artists – from Louis Armstrong to Prince – were exploited by the music industry on the basis of their race. The first episode (of three) takes in the 30s, 40s and 50s, from Armstong and Billie Holiday to Chuck Berry and Little Richard, and shows how bad contracts and exploitative management meant million-selling black artists were reimbursed a pittance. “I always call it a pimp business,” says Ice-T.
Sunday 9pm, BBC Two Bob Mortimer and Paul Whitehouse (joined, of course, by Ted the dog) are back – beginning a new series by fishing for tench in Norfolk. The familiar delights include Bob’s semi-inedible riverbank snacks, pub stopovers, musings on male friendship and health advice from Dr Anand Patel. 8pm, ITV1 The dialogue in these Brighton-set police procedurals is a tad drab , undercutting what should be a pivotal and highly emotional scene in which Roy Grace ( John Simm ) is finally reunited with his errant, presumed-dead wife Sandy (Clare Calbraith).
Not that Grace is in a forgiving mood as he catches up with Sandy, who is lying bandaged in a Munich hospital bed. Back on the Brighton beat, a supposedly reformed burglar is found dead in his car. 9pm, BBC One Having survived the collision with a goods train, the remotely driven London-to-Glasgow express continues its mysterious journey tensions heightened by the knowledge that one of the “hack-jackers” is on board.
There’s no time for viewers to catch their breath, however, as the relentless pace of this ongoing high-speed thriller now sees Abby ( Alexandra Roach ) turning the tables on the driver by making a snap decision. 9pm, Channel 4 Fifteen new brave/masochistic celebrities make their way to the South Island of New Zealand to be shouted at by Jason Fox, Rudy Reyes and their fellow former special forces types. Among a cluster of reality “stars” taking part are actor John Barrowman – eager to put controversies about his “ exuberant behaviour ” behind him – and Rachel Johnson .
And as with MP Matt Hancock in the last series, disproportionate attention is on Boris Johnson’s younger sister. 9pm, Channel 5 The Princess of Wales has been through the mill of late, dealing with a cancer diagnosis and bizarre conspiracy theories around her absence from public view during treatment. Channel 5’s one-off film offers a profile of the princess through some of the most famous photographs of her.
9.50pm, BBC Four Baroque ensemble the Dunedin Consort perform Mozart’s “Great Mass in C Minor”, recorded at the BBC Proms last month. The much-loved work takes up the entire second half of the concert, prior to which the ensemble performs a series of shorter pieces by composers JS Bach and CPE Bach.
10.20pm, ITV1 No, not a tie-in biopic about the Welsh singer and Voice UK judge, but a four-part adaptation of Henry Fielding’s classic 18th-century comic novel about the eponymous foundling. Writer Gwyneth Hughes’s version (available on ITVX since last year) has Sophia Western take centre stage by making her the narrator.
Solly McLeod plays Tom in what is a light-hearted but somewhat anaemic post- Bridgerton romp..
